Roger Federer has gone down in history as one of the greatest players of all time, but one of his former coaches has admitted it wasn’t always fun and games.
Federer practised with Carlos Alcaraz at the Shanghai Masters, with the former still clearly eager to stay close to the sport.
A fellow great in Rafael Nadal will soon retire and join Federer in tennis folklore, with the duo having enjoyed several tense battles over the years.
The Spanish icon is second in the all-time Grand Slam titles list with 22, two ahead of Federer in third place.
Novak Djokovic meanwhile sits top of the list with 24, with the Serbian undoubtedly keen to add to that tally in the coming years.
Roger Federer’s former coach explains what he’s really like
The so-called Big 3 produced many magical moments during their matches, although Federer was undoubtedly the most graceful on the court.
But his former coach Ivan Ljubicic has revealed that it wasn’t always plain sailing with the Swiss legend, having been asked by Eurosport what it was like to work with Federer.
READ MORE: Wilson racket expert says what Roger Federer was like to deal with during his tennis career
“The details, the excellence of everything he did,” said Ljubicic. “Preparing for interviews, his warm-ups, the dinners. All the things he did, he did with great application. There were many days when I didn’t know what to say because he was perfect.
“We’ve also had some difficult times mentally, because everyone thinks that everything is easy for Roger, but we’ve had some complicated times.”
Ivan Ljubicic shares how he started working with Roger Federer
A former world number three as a player, Ljubicic took over the role of Federer’s coach from Stefan Edberg in 2015.
And the pair went on to win three major titles together, with the former helping the latter end a seven-year Grand Slam drought.
Eight of the Swiss icon’s major titles came at Wimbledon, with that record figure followed by his six Australian Open titles.
| Career-high rank | 1 |
| Win-loss record | 1251-275 |
| Titles | 103 |
| Prize money | $130,594,339 |
Federer also won five times at the US Open and once at the French Open, with multiple Grand Slam wins having been on the mind of Ljubicic when he first started working with Federer.
“I was working in London with Italian television for the Masters, and he invited me, his wife and my wife to dinner,” he recalled. “He asked me if I’d be interested in working with him. I was really surprised because I didn’t know Stefan Edberg was going to stop. I said ‘Yes, absolutely’.
“After that, we continued to talk about goals. He asked me if I thought he could still win Grand Slams because he hadn’t won one for four years. I said ‘absolutely’. I also said I wasn’t signing up for just one Grand Slam, I said I’d like to win several.”
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